well when we got our sleeping bus in ninh binh, it was already nearly full it took us awhile to figure out that the only spaces available were in the back row beside these 3 guys. so we had to wake them up and make them move over. sorry! the journey was quite long and arriving the next morning we were still tired. after checking in to our hotel we went to explore hue. we walked around being stopped every two minutes asking did we want a bike or cyclo. we decided we would walk to the citadel and check that out first.
when we walked across the river and into the citadel it all looked quite cool. there were 5 cannons which we read earlier stood for the 5 elements and there where 4 on the otherside which stood for the 4 seasons. so after taking a few pictures there, we went towards the entrance, which was nice. there were 5 different bridges and the middle one was only used for the emperor. so we didn't get to walk across that one :( when we were inside it looked to have the same layout as temple of literature. there were fish on either side of the bridge and they were huge. we had to get pictures of course. as we walked around the sun was beating down on us, it seemed much hotter than ninh binh. i would say the history around there whould be very interesting but the place just looked like a building site to us. like they were trying to rebuild it back to the way it was. it might eventually be nice but we weren't very impressed. after leaving the citedel we went to go find tinh tam lake near by. when we eventually found it, we were so exhausted we just sat down at a lake side table and had a drink and stayed there for about an hour.
then i just turned to aoife and said lets get out of here. she agreed 100%. its not thats there was anything wrong with hue, we were even going to book a trip to see the DMZ (demilitarised zone). i just think that after the great time we had in ninh binh, hue was such a downer and we wanted to move out of that. well its not a good sign when the only pictures we took were really only of fishes and flowers. ha ha so we got a cyclo back towards our hotel, who tried to charge us more then was said of course. and we booked our bus for the morning. we were leaving at 8 o clock. we went out for dinner and found a bar call DMZ. so we decided since we weren't going to the real DMZ, we would spend our evening in the bar called it instead. there i discovered lua moi, which is vietnamese vodka. quite potent and really cheap.
so the next morning we were on the bus and on our way to hoi an. hopefully this would turn out much better. arriving early enough, we made our way to a hotel that was recommended by sandy and romly, the english couple we met in halong. and i had to say it was really nice and with a swimming pool. we did spoil ourselves abit.
that first night we went for food and as we were walking around aoife got grabbed to go see a tailor down the road. where as soon as entered, we were sat down and shown NEXT and clothes cataloges to look through to see if we liked anything to be made for us. the tailor shop happened to be the one that craig and vickie said they with. so i ended asking for a couple of things to be made like a long white skirt and a blue top. i saw a lovely dress as i was walking earlier that day so i tried to get one made like that in a lovely grey colour. aoife got a skirt and top also and got a more traditional dress made. we were to go back the next day to try them on to make sure they fit properly.
we actually had loads of fun in the end. the girls there were lovely and the owner of the store seemed to take a liking to us, probably cause we spent so much money, and wanted to bring us around the town. she gave us a lift back to our hotel on her motorbike and told us to come back to the shop at 7 o clock and we would go for food and drinks.
we got ready to go out and arrived on time. when we got to the shop no one recongnized us. which was kinda funny as we looked totally different i guess, as we had changed from our shorts and tanks tops to more repectable clothes. but the store owner, who we found out was called flower, sent us out to the hair dresser to get our hair straightened. she wanted us more beautiful. i was just hoping she wasn't trying to pimp us out. ha ha
she brought us to a local vietnamese resturant with the small plastic seats and we had our first experience with pork wrapped in rice paper. i have to say it was delicous but there was some leaf or lettuce that had a strange taste that i wasn't particularly mad about. after that we were brought to a bar and ended up playing pool. aoife against flower. flower was quite a hand at pool, was even showing off and hitting balls with one hand on the cue stick. there were a group of canadians near by and asked if they could play against us next.which was fine more the merrier.
we ended up playing pool with them all night. had a great time. with luke, brad, timmy and matt. found out it was lukes bday, only 23. ended back at an all night bar called king kongs with timmy and matt, were we had few more drinks and wrote on the wall. gaillimh abu! ha ha flower had left us at this stage but got her friend, who was king kong himself, to give us a lift back to our hotel. so it was a strange and fun first night in hoi an.
the next day we didn't get out of bed till one o clock. we were just wreaked and the next 4 days were spent pretty much shopping. oh we did end up cycling to the beach which was down the road about 5km one of the days. where i ended up getting abit burned, especially when i ended up with a red V on my arse. was sore to sit down for a few days. we ever really saw much around hoi an.
we rented bikes another day to cycling around but it was quite small and we were pretty much done within an hour. so we sat and had icecream and did more shopping. ha ha.
we finally left hoi an on the night bus to nha trang, so we were to arrive early the next morning. we met leona and david on the bus who were also from ireland. yea! other irish tourist, we haven't met many of them ha ha. they were after spending the last year in australia and were on their way home.
when we arrived to nha trang the bus stopped and told us it was the last stop. being as it was 5 in the morning and we were all still half asleep we got off the bus and got our bags and tried to figure out how to get to the hotel we wanted to stay in. as we were contemplating that. the bus pulled off again with all the other passengers except us four irish. typical for me to be lost in my own little world, don't know what the excuse the rest have. the bus wasn't at the last stop and went off to where the bus office was. so here we were stuck on the wrong side of the town then we wanted to be. so we got on our bags and started to walk but decided a taxi would be better, which we shared to the hotel. after checking in we went left leona and david behind and went for breakfast.
we wanted to spend some time at the beach so we went to walk that way to check it out and on the way we were stopped by papa hanh. good salesman. he was talking about easyriders and bringing us on a 4 day 3 night trip from nan trang through to dalat, to see silk worms and weaving and rubber trees and brick making and the views. it all seemed really good and we were thinking of getting easyriders when we got to dalat but getting them to dalat sounded better. so we were sold, we booked right there and then and were to leave the next morning. so we only had one day in nan trang.
so we spent the afternoon at the beach, soaking up the sun and then we went into the sea were the water was quite rough. but it was loads of fun being pushed and pulled around by the current. after being in the water awhile we saw a bottle and a bag and aoife went running out cause we heard that there can be loads of jelly fish around. when it wasn't jelly fish she came back in. but a little while later we saw what looked like a toy horse floating upside down. i went abit closer to check it out and it ended up being a dead rat. so needless to say i didn't stay in the water after that. i had to go back to the hotel to have a shower. ha ha we saw david back at the hotel were we told him we were going on the trip the next day, and wished them well for the rest of their journey.
the rest of the evening went quite quick. we were looking forward to our adventure that was going to start the next day.
